Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Spiffy:

Iffy:

Waiting until release; difficulty in meeting technology's potential.

Finally, with the conclusion of the Star Wars films, the rise of the Empire can be explored. The entire Star Wars universe has been unleashed, and the first major story will be that of the Secret Apprentice. Recruited by Darth Vader, brought into power, and sent out to hunt more than just Jedi, you will play that Apprentice. And whether you're a Star Wars nerd already in an uproar because there are more than two Sith or if you don't know Han Solo from Kit Fisto, in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed you will get to see LucasArts deliver on a tempting promise. With amazing new technology and the full power of the fully operational LucasArts licensing machine, you will get to "kick ass with the Force." The developer invited me out to its San Francisco studio to show me how.

That's not true! That's impossible!

As the Apprentice, you'll secretly serve Darth Vader. These aren't the gentle teachings of Obi-Wan; it's more like torture. Concept art shows the Apprentice's arms bound with chains, forced onto his knees. Darth Vader watches as the Apprentice assembles a lightsaber with only the Force. Later, more fully in touch with his power, the Apprentice is tooled up and armed with his lightsaber but still has shackles on his neck and one of his arms. The shackles, like the ones binding Obi-Wan in Episode II, have blue energy bolts shooting from them. Throughout the game, Darth Vader's influence will haunt you.

But Vader isn't recruiting because he's a sweetheart and thinks you deserve superpowers. The Sith lord is recruiting because he needs lots of dangerous people found and murdered. Executing Order 66, Vader will send you on missions to eliminate the remaining Jedi in the galaxy. During my demo, I got to see the Apprentice take on enemies in some sort of TIE Fighter construction facility. The facility floated in space, numerous horizontal rings stacked one over the other. Two group were at war inside of it, and so was the Apprentice's first target.

The familiar white insect-samurai armor of the Emperor's elite, the Stormtroopers, flashed everywhere in the space station. In fatigues and coveralls, a group of so-called "proto-rebels" was attacking them. All around the interior of the facility, the two groups were at war. Vader didn't want anyone, in particular the Emperor, finding out the Apprentice was there, so the Apprentice had to wipe them out ("all of them"). It's in the methods of murder that LucasArts' new technologies will really let you feel the power of The Force.

As in a few highly regarded Star Wars games, at some point moral choices will come up, but the gameplay of destruction has never been pushed as hard as this before. Morals, schmorals, this is what we've always wanted to do with Force powers. Psi-Ops was cool, but using Force Pull, Push, Choke, Lightening, Dash, Storm, and your lightsaber in tandem creates more potential for sheer heinousness than ever before.

A number of intertwined technology systems help sell the action. Each character has, essentially, a central nervous system. LucasArts calls this Euphoria, and it grants the enemies a real self-preservation instinct that plays out dynamically, instead of through a small set of action/reaction pairs and canned animations. Meanwhile, a tech called Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) allows many physical objects to behave with nearly absolute realism. That means wood splintering, metal bending and then snapping, railings snapping under too much weight, and so on. These two systems will interact to create dynamic behaviors like enemies grabbing out to save themselves from falling (and perhaps failing to get a grip because they're too slow or their armor too heavy), enemies fearfully backing away when you slash wildly with your lightsaber, and so on. All of this realism should help sell your powers like never before; plenty of games have let us play as Force users, but never has it felt so potentially out-of-control and deadly as it does here.

Back in the facility's interior hangar, Stormtroopers threatened the character with a peppering of blaster bolts from above. The Apprentice simply reached out and ripped the support struts out from under their walkways a section at a time: DSS in action. The Imperials didn't even have time to react before they died, but their comrades on the ground of the TIE hanger moved in to avenge them. While being picked up with the Force, the first armored warrior flailed, trying to get some leverage. The Apprentice flung his lightsaber; the game's targeting system makes it easy to make sure that the lightsaber goes to the same target that the Apprentice is floating. Even as the crimson red saber pierced the soldier, the Apprentice fired a searing series of Force bolts, the electricity tearing into the victim's body. With a last downward command, the Apprentice slammed the doomed Imperial into the deck in the midst of his fellows. The trooper finally exploded via a Force Lightening bomb, which wrecked horrific harm on the other cowering shooters.